Storm Wreaks Havoc but Dampens Drought : Weather: Rainfall exceeds normal level for first time in six years. Another front is expected Friday.

A savage storm tore into Southern California, mustering high winds, uprooting trees, closing highways, dropping record-breaking torrents of rain on Los Angeles on Sunday, and pushing precipitation levels above normal for the first time in six years of drought.

By evening, the storm had dumped 1.23 inches of rain on the Los Angeles Civic Center, surpassing the 57-year-old record for the date. The rain volume is “good news for everyone,” said Stephen Ahn, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

The downpour brought the Civic Center total for the season--starting July 1--to 5.24 inches. Normal rainfall by now, Ahn said, is 4.91 inches. At this time last year, only 1.56 inches had fallen. If the trend continues as expected, he said, this rainy season could end with rainfall exceeding 20 inches--well above normal for the first time since 1985.

Meteorologists said the storm was expected to dump up to 12 inches of snow in area mountains by Sunday night, with another 12 inches possible this morning.

The weather may have contributed to the deaths of two brothers in Ventura County.

The men were believed to have died after setting out in an eight-foot dinghy to explore caves on Anacapa Island on Saturday afternoon. Caught in the bad weather, the brothers--Bryan and Monte Bolton, 21 and 27, of Provo, Utah--may have become stranded at Cathedral Cave. After temporarily suspending the search because of the storm, rescuers discovered Bryan Bolton’s body late Sunday afternoon.

The rain and snowfall were expected to ease by this afternoon, with partly cloudy skies and mild winds predicted, said Stephen Burback, a meteorologist with WeatherData, which provides forecasts for The Times. There will be a dry period until Friday, he said, when another storm is expected to hit.

“This kind of storm is (historically) very usual in Southern California,” Ahn said, “but since we haven’t received (such weather) in five years, people think it’s a lot of rain.”

The wet weather does not spell the end of the drought, however, because it will take several years of normal or above-normal precipitation to counter the years of low rainfall, Ahn said. “That could take another four years,” he said.

The storm, which hit late Saturday, dropped most of its rain--1.22 inches--on Sunday, pushing the Civic Center total past the 1935 record of 1.21 inches for that date.

Rainfall varied significantly throughout Southern California, with Newhall recording 1.96 inches while San Juan Capistrano reported 0.58. In Glendale, 1.41 inches of rain fell; there were 1.22 inches in Monrovia and 0.9 inches in Torrance.

Sunday’s storm originated in the Gulf of Alaska. One of several factors contributing to it was a light-to-moderate “El Nino”--a condition in which warmer-than-normal equatorial waters alter the usual wind patterns--in the eastern Pacific.

As weather officials calculated the extent of the downpour, rain and snow wreaked havoc among motorists and homeowners.

Interstate 5 over the Tejon Pass was closed for about two hours Sunday because of wind and snow. By noon, the California Highway Patrol was escorting 200 motorists at a time through the area.

The Antelope Valley Freeway was closed for several hours beginning at 1 p.m. at Escondido Canyon Road in Agua Dulce. “You can’t see more than five feet in front of you,” Officer Bob Smart said, adding that earlier in the day several motorists were involved in minor accidents along the rain-slicked freeway that is the main route between Los Angeles and the Antelope Valley.

Water flooded three lanes of the San Diego Freeway south of Los Angeles International Airport, prompting a rash of accidents that included a five-car pileup.

“There are so many accidents going on there’s no way we can log every flood,” Smart said.

Mudslides forced the temporary closure of California 33 near Ojai.

In Orange County, flooding closed a lane of the southbound I-5 at the junction with the 91 Freeway, while minor fender-benders were reported on surface streets throughout the county. Meanwhile, county work crews cleaned large branches and uprooted trees from roadways in half a dozen locations after strong winds swept through the southern part of the county, a public works spokesman said.

In Glendale, Carmen Beirne, 76, spent several hours trapped in her home after high winds toppled a 75-foot, 100-year-old oak tree over her driveway and porch.

“Even in death, it’s majestic,” she said as city crews worked to free her. “This was like a friend, a member of the family. I just can’t believe it’s down. It’s like a nightmare.”

In the upscale community of Quartz Hill outside of Palmdale, residents sandbagged their homes to prevent the type of flooding that last year damaged more than three dozen houses. Water filled Sandra Briggs’ garage as crews worked feverishly to sandbag her house.

“It’s let up for now,” said Briggs, whose house was flooded with seven inches of water in March. “But who knows what’s coming?”

Times staff writers Mark Landsbaum and Aaron Curtiss contributed to this story.